Beautiful Smiles Independent Dental Hygiene Practice

"Health is beauty, and the most perfect health is the most perfect beauty" - William Shakespeare

When Sandie expresses that she was one of the first people in the nation to make dental hygiene more accessible, she means it. When she opened her clinic on Salt Spring Island in 1998, she was only one of three in Canada.

Sandie’s road to the Hazelton’s is certainly unique. Formerly an avid scuba diver, she had planned to move even further north to Yellowknife where she would utilize the freezing waters to ice dive. She had secured a position with a local dentist but when last minute contract stipulations were introduced, Sandie left for Smithers and eventually she followed the small voice in her head that told her to move to Old Town.

As her clinic continued, life took an unexpected turn and Sandie found herself raising her grandchildren aged one, two and three for over four years. Now with everything a little more settled and with more time to dedicate to her clinic, Sandie is back in full swing and eager to get back to her passion. “This is my art form,” she says. “I’m passionate about it and I love the creativity it comes with. I get to see all this new stuff by being part of the independent dental hygiene practice community network and then I get to bring all this cool new stuff here.”

Sandie loves people and is grateful that her role as a dental hygienist has allowed her to hold very personal relationships with her clients. “Being a dental hygienist is a very intimate job,” she explains. “I get to have connections with these people that in no other way would I be able to if not for my position.”

Sandie likes that you get to know people in a small town and that they get to know you. It’s a lot more personable to living here than a larger city. As an example, two other local business, Zelda's Travel Mug Cafe and Skeena Bakery is Sandie’s waiting rooms for her clinic and she has recently started a new customer appreciation promotion that gives her clients a complimentary coffee voucher. There are not many communities where you could have this sort of business to business relationship.

If she’s not sprucing up people mouths, Sandie supports Mercedes Beans, the Yoga Shack or explores the outdoors at places like Ross Lake. She also enjoys wild crafting and the study of plants around the area. She makes spruce tip salt, spruce tip honey and implements indigenous plants into her practice.

According to Sandie, small business is at a turning point right now. She has noticed a lot more new development and expansion through her community and says there are more people willing to venture out these days. “People are starting to step up,” said Sandie.